OUR PHILOSOPHY
Having dived all over the world – from North Atlantic deep-sea wrecks to Florida to the Mediterranean to Red Sea to Maldives – we have always been drawn to a particular type of dive operation: one offering professional quality service, but in a flexible and relaxed manner - a shop where you feel like hanging out after the dive, having a refreshing post-dive beverage (we recommend “scuba libres”) and swapping travel/dive stories.    

We feel diving should be fun, diving should be safe and diving should be accessible. Everything we do is based on these three tenets. That is why, for example, we have not adopted a premium pricing strategy, despite having the most experienced group of instructors and divemasters in the Andamans (remember - NO ONE on this planet has done more dives in the Andamans or knows these waters better than us).       

We'd like to think that our dive shop offers just that. We have a passion for diving, and a passion for the Andamans, and all of us here at DIVEIndia – instructors, divemasters, staff, 2 boisterous not-quite-puppies & 1 grouchy cat – look forward to sharing that passion with you, not just as our customers but also as our friends.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
DIVEIndia was founded by Vandit Kalia, aka Vinnie. A former management consulting drone, a very early midlife crisis (at the ripe old age of 28) made him take a year off as a sabbatical. Despite returning to the corporate world after the sabbatical, he was unable to resist the call of the islands. So he decided to walk away from the rat race and start his own dive operation there.

Vinnie is a NAUI Course Director, a PADI Staff Instructor and SSI Divecontrol Specialist Instructor. In addition, he is an experienced cold-water trimix/technical diver. His main passion is wreck diving, and his eyes gleam with an unholy light at happy memories of diving the freezing-water wrecks of the North Atlantic, adult diapers and all (he vehemently denies all rumors about needing the diapers before the drysuit). Some days, he even dives.

One of our senior instructors is Jackson, whose uncanny ability to spot all sorts of interesting things makes us suspect that he is not from Planet Earth. However, he has not eaten any divers (or the current Cat) yet, so that's good. Actually, Jackson is from the Karen tribe of northern Andamans - the Karens are well-known for their knowledge of the local waters and it shows! Jackson defines coolness underwater, and it rumored that once, he even said 5 words in row outside of a dive classroom.

Joining Jackson is his brother, Dixon, another of our full-time instructors, who has also been with DIVEIndia since our inception. Not only is he a very patient and skilled instructor, he also holds a master's in psychology. Coming soon to a tropical island near you (or very far from you): the world's only "Diving + Counselling" packages.

And of course, there is Vikas ("The Tribal"), who used to teach in Goa and consequently, goes into raptures every time he sees his own fin in the water. There is a popular theory that Vikas only learned to wear clothes a few years ago, but we can neither confirm or deny these rumors - best to ask him. In addition to being the Chief Instructor/Dive Center Manager/General Terror At Large, Vikas is also a keen underwater videographer, with a very impressive underwater rig (which no one has actually seen him take underwater).

Sayeed the Tamil Hearththrob, seems to have become a specialist at finding all sorts of tiny critters - including Andaman's first spiny devilfish and frogfish. We still cannot believe how quickly he's grown, and no matter how cool and experienced Sayeed may proclaim himself to be, he'll always be Fungus to us.

Back for her 5th season in the Andamans is Evelyn aka McNaManta, Diving Diva, Scuba Instructor and fashion photographer extraordinaire from Ireland. After aeveral trips to the Andamans, Ev very adroitly made the shift from customer to staff without anyone noticing. Now, not only does she add a touch of glamor to the team, but also pretty much rules the roost as the Queen Bee, with the rest of us wrapped around her fingers.

Rounding off our team of instructors this year is Chris - his story is very similar to pretty much most of our instructors: first, he came and dived with us. Then he came back and did his Divemaster course with us. And then, as his appetite for abuse was still not satisfied, he went off, became an instructor and came back. Jokes apart, all of us (staff and customers alike) really enjoyed having Chris around as a divemaster and we look forward to having him on our team from 2010 onwards. Bad-ass tattoos and a degree in History/Literature aside, Chris is also fluent in German.

Our chief Divemaster (and now Assistant Instructor), Johnnie, is Jackson and Dixon's younger brother (a love for water runs in the family, it seems) and has spent more time underwater in the Andamans than above it, apparently. He worked for an environmental agency doing research on turtles, and is an expert freediver as well. He loves to dive, and the hard part is to get him to come up after a dive.

Back for their third seasons as DMs are Ivan, another Karen (who, amazingly, is NOT related to Jackson, Dixon and Johnny) and David, also a Divemaster. With almost two thousand dives each in the Havelock waters, both Ivan and David are top-notch divers and superb guides.

Lastly, in the background, like a giant spider weaving a web (or a puppeteer - you pick), is Pritha Namjoshi, She Who Makes Everything Run Smoothly. She is now a Divemaster as well, and is another macro addict.

And of course there are the two dogs - Frodo Waggins, the Golden Retriever (he's the one getting really intimate with your leg) and Sam Smalldog, the Labrador (he's the one stealing your food). They are the ones who really are in charge - us humans exist merely to cater to their every whim and desire!

We do not mention The Cat around here. She's mean (and were we to extend the Usual Suspects theme, she'd be the real Kaiser Soze).